by GDI | Oct 15, 2025 | Comment
By Teklehaymanot Weldemichel and Smith Ouma The African Union has long promoted the slogan “African solutions to African problems”. Yet recent developments across the continent suggest that this proclamation is increasingly hollow. To begin with, in a world of...
by GDI | Oct 8, 2025 | Comment
The Research for Transformation Lab is an initiative at GDI that aims to explore and critically reflect on the connection between development research and the ‘real world’. The Transformation Lab week will facilitate conversations between researchers and...
by GDI | Sep 19, 2025 | Comment
On 16th September 2025, we held the second communities of practice in a series exploring the complexities of developing and maintaining resilience within the development space. Natalie Cunningham, Senior Lecturer in Leadership for Development at GDI, facilitated the...
by GDI | Sep 16, 2025 | Comment
by Professor Nicola Banks It’s been 20 years since the huge phenomenon of Make Poverty History. Nearly one-quarter of a million people marched the streets of Edinburgh. More than three billion worldwide watched Live 8. And over 7 million of us wore white wristbands in...
by GDI | Sep 15, 2025 | Comment
by Dilek Celebi, PhD Researcher in GDI On 16 September 2022, a young woman’s murder shook the world. Jîna Amini – a Kurdish-Iranian woman known to the state as Mahsa Amini – journeyed from her hometown of Saqqez (in Kurdistan province) to Tehran. Accused of violating...
by GDI | Sep 4, 2025 | Comment
The past few years have brought a great deal of social, political, and economic turbulence across much of the world. From intensifying climate breakdown to growing geopolitical uncertainty, GDI academics have been working hard to conceptualise future threats and...
by GDI | Aug 21, 2025 | Comment
On 19th August 2025, we held the first communities of practice in a series focused on the role resilience plays during a turbulent period within the development space. The sessions were held online (taking place at 8am and 2pm BST to accommodate time zones) and we...
by GDI | Aug 19, 2025 | Comment
By Dr Gemma Sou and Ms Clare Steele. We’re told ever-hotter summers are inevitable. What’s less discussed is that Britain’s ability to cope has been systematically dismantled — not by the climate itself, but by 15 years of austerity. The UK has just endured its fourth...
by GDI | Aug 14, 2025 | Comment
Nicola Banks and Gijs van Selm Localisation. Locally Led Development. Shift the Power. These phrases have become fixtures in the language of international aid. They promise a simple but powerful idea: put resources and decision-making closer to the communities they...
by GDI | Aug 14, 2025 | Comment
As the start of term approaches, GDI is looking forward to welcoming our new students. To kick off the semester, we will be hosting a Welcome Week on campus (22nd – 26th September) where we will provide induction sessions, meetings and mixers to get to know...
